COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously sided with three Toledo public school employees on
Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a kindergartner alleging that the employees acted
recklessly by not preventing bullying by another student.
The parents of the child sued teacher Amanda Lute, Assistant Principal Cynthia Skaff and Principal Ralph
Schade for allegedly failing to intervene to prevent an alleged series of bullying encounters from
escalating, The Blade reported.
The parents, who are only identified by their initials in the lawsuit, claim that their child’s cheek was
punctured with a sharpened pencil by another student.
Lute said that she did not discover that the victim had been poked in the cheek until four days after the
alleged incident when the parents removed their child from the school.
Lute said that her desk was 10 feet from the table the two students shared and that she did not hear
anything.
The Ohio and Toledo Federation of Teachers, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Ohio
Association for School Business Officials, Ohio School Boards Association, the Toledo Association of
Administrative Personnel, and the city of Toledo filed briefs in defense of the employees and voiced
concern over the precedent the case could take if it was allowed to proceed.
Justice Patrick Fischer wrote that the appellants presented evidence that they took steps to prevent
bullying in the classroom.
Jennifer Dawson, the school’s district attorney, said that she was "extremely pleased with the
court’s unanimous ruling."